Behind the Bookcase
by weeabuuz
Summary: What will Petra find when she finds a hidden room behind a bookcase? Who knew a gardening book would cause so much trouble? It's a long story, so get comfy and enjoy the show! -


**I had this crazy idea so I decided to put it to paper. Oneshot only.**

**I've skilfully infiltrated Hajime Isayama's base and I'm currently in this midst of torturing him until he hands over the- oh, wait. Nah, I'm just joking. I don't own anything… yet.**

Petra's thin eyebrows were knitted together as she searched for the book she was looking for on her bookcase. It was an old thing that looked as if it was going to fall apart at a moment's notice. It had four distinct shelves, with a large gap between the bottom and the second shelf. It once held another shelf, but it slanted so much that Petra had no choice but to take it off. Now that space was used for keeping any unwanted files that Petra didn't need. And the space was used well, to say the least.

Petra subconsciously ran her fingers across the sides of the dark wood planks. It had become a habit of hers now. She was constantly running her delicate fingers over anything she could touch. She got some weird looks from Corporal Levi when she started feeling up the dining room table.

She'd been standing in front of this ancient excuse for a bookcase for nearly ten minutes now and she was starting to get a little frustrated. All she wanted was to find her book on gardening, was that so much to ask?

Romance novels, no.

More romance novels, no.

A beginners guide to building blanket forts, no! Why did she even own such a ridiculous book?

Out of pure frustration, she kicked the side of the bookcase, causing her toe to throb painfully. But more importantly, a book to fall off the top of the bookcase and down the back. She never thought of looking on top of the bookcase, never the less, she couldn't actually reach it without the support of a foot-stool.

Cursing under her breath, she manoeuvred around the bookcase to the side where the book had fallen down. The small girl crouched down, with a hope to see behind the old thing, but to no avail. She hadn't realized, after all these years, that the bookcase was actually stuck to the wall itself?

Groaning in frustration, she begin trying to effectively peel the bookcase off of the wall, until she noticed a golden glimmer near the bottom of the area where the shelf was stuck to the wall.

Her copper eyes became as wide as plates when she realized what they were. They were hinges. And what common object usually uses hinges? Doors.

Was this thing really a door? No, it couldn't be! How silly of her to think so!

But Petra's curiosity grew by the second.

And before long, she was desperately trying to open the long forgotten door.

When it finally opened, she was greeted with copious amounts of dust. She started to panic. Corporal Levi could smell even a speck of dust from a mile away.

Petra grabbed a brush out of the cleaning closet across the hall from her bedroom and hurriedly started sweeping the floor around the bookcase.

After some intense cleaning, she finally had the dust levels down to almost non-existent.

Petra jogged over to her desk and grabbed a lantern that was already burning and then turning on her heel to go back to where the bookcase was wide open, revealing a wide and fairly shallow staircase.

The soldier starting contemplating whether to actually follow the staircase. What if there was a ruthless murderer up there, or even a human-eating monster? Wait, you mean a titan.

But Petra had to face her fears, otherwise she would never get anywhere. That's how she made it this far, into the Scouting Legion and into the Special Operations Squad. She'd done pretty well for a woman in her 20's.

She took a deep breath in an attempt to relax herself. She was getting way too jumpy about this.

After a few nervous steps, Petra was at the base of the staircase.

"Here goes nothing." She muttered. And she took the first step.

And she kept on stepping. Step after step, she became less nervous and more excited about what was at the top of this staircase.

After a further 17 steps, she counted just in case she was losing her mind, she reached an old wooden door with a dusty golden door knob staring at her. The candle light gave off a warm glow as she twisted the handle and cracked open the door.

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" She asked quietly. She knew she sounded stupid, but safety precautions had to be taken. After a few seconds of no sound but her own deep breathing, Petra decided to open the door fully.

The oak door squeaked a little as she pushed it open with her pale hands. Instantly, the light of the lantern filled the room. And Petra was surprised. It was half the size of her room. So tiny, in effect.

Her copper eyes scanned the dimly lit room to find a few boxes covered in a thick layer of dust stacked in various places against the wall. At the back of the room stood a fairly long thing that was a few inches shorter than her. She gathered up the courage to walk into the room, holding the lantern in front of her like some sort of shield, in case a rat or something started to attack her.

Petra stopped in the middle of the room to take in her surroundings a little better.

There were no windows, otherwise the light of day would overcome the light of the candle burning in her hands. The walls were a white and the floor was wooden, just like the rest of the castle. But why was this room behind a bookcase, of all places? What could the person that hid this place possibly have to hide that was so precious?

Petra continued toward the unknown object at the back of the room. Wow, curiosity was really getting the better of Petra.

She examined the object more closely. It had a smooth oak frame with a shiny wooden body. It had a straight back against the wall with a curved top, a straight bit with a small shelf in the centre and another curved bit, where there seemed to be a part that looked like it could be lifted. Petra blew and swept the dust off the object and cautiously lifted the hatch looking thing open. She was astonished at what she found.

A long set of white rectangles, with smaller and thinner rectangles in between in an order of two black, three black, but the first black note was singular. The white notes ran all the way across.

What is this thing?

Since Petra's curiosity had possessed her to the point where she could no longer control it, she cautiously placed a finger on one of the white tiles. And with that, she pressed down.

Ding!

She had chosen to press the rectangle at the very end, which resulted in a high pitched ding. Then she pressed the rectangle at the bottom.

Dong.

It made a low and deep sound, but smooth none the less. Then she started running her fingers along the rectangles, until stopped on the one right in the middle.

…

She couldn't really describe the sound, as it was an even mix between the two rectangles she had pressed before. It was a nice sound, so she decided to press the rectangle to the right of it.

…

It made an almost identical sound, but it was obviously a little higher. Then she pressed the rectangle to the left of the middle rectangle. It made a sound a little lower than the middle sound.

So, that must mean that it goes from a lower sound to a higher sound from one end to the other, and vice versa.

Placing the lantern on top of the sound-making object, she grabbed a nearby box to sit on. But of course she rid it of its dust before she placed her uniform on it.

Next, Petra placed three of her fingers on three rectangles, the first one being the middle one, and the other two following with no gaps in between. She pressed down, to find a fairly unpleasant sound. She even cringed a little. So, like Hanji would, she decided to experiment.

She left a gap in between each rectangle, the first one being the middle one again. She then pressed down.

It filled her ears with a nice sound. She smiled, even though most would consider it a shallow victory.

But then Petra became lost in thought.

_Is this supposed to make music? If it is, is there a button I have to press to make lots of sound, or do I have to press the rectangles myself? _

She then got her other hand, which was sitting patiently on her lap, and placed it so that her fingers replicated the position her other hand was in, but backwards, on the other side of the middle rectangle. This made it so that there were six rectangles being pressed at one time, with rectangle in between each. Petra pushed them down eagerly.

It made a nice sound once again, but it had much more depth to it. So the more rectangles she pressed down, the louder and deeper the sound would be? She decided to go full on, my placing the length of her arm over a section of rectangles. And she pushed down. Hard.

The sound was such a shock that poor Petra fell of her stool.

She couldn't help but stifle a laugh at her oblivious behaviour. Of course it would make that sound if I pressed more rectangles, wouldn't it!

However, when Petra started to get up, she noticed a distinct pile of papers next to the music-playing object. And a large book next to that.

Normally, Petra would've picked those up and moved them to somewhere where they couldn't be damaged, because they probably belonged to someone. She had another habit of taking great care over miscellaneous objects, even if they weren't hers. Now, don't get her confused with Levi. Her Heichou could kill a mirror if it was a person within minutes by scrubbing it. She often felt sorry for the objects that got the wrath of Levi's cloth, but at least he wasn't taking it out on Eren.

But today, she was eager to explore new things. Today was a rare day that Petra Ral didn't follow the rules.

So with that, she crawled over to the book and took it in her hands. She brushed the dust off of the top in an attempt to read what it said. She squinted as she read the faded writing, but she read it none the less.

'_Piano_'

Then it clicked.

A piano, why hadn't she thought of that before? It was so obvious that Petra had to mentally slap herself.

She had read about these instruments before. They belonged to the percussion family, as you hit the 88 black and white notes with your fingers, but they also technically belonged to the strings family, as inside there were strings inside. It was a fairly complicated complex inside, but it could be explained in a very simple way. For every note, or key, there was a string that was tied tightly from your end of the piano to the other end. And at your end of the piano, where the keys are, there is a small hammer. Every time you hit a key, let's say the middle note, that keys string will be hit by the hammer. This causes the string to vibrate and the hammer is pulled away by the spring that sent it down, so it doesn't disturb the vibration of the string. This is what caused the nice, or not so nice, sound to come from the instrument. In Petra's case, it was a vertical piano, meaning that it stood upright instead of being horizontal like a grand piano. They are much bigger though, and it's unlikely that one would fit in this room anyway.

"So a piano, eh?" Petra questioned. She set up her stool again, before sitting down with the book in her lap.

Unfortunately, Petra's need for reading this book would have to wait.

She could hear a faint pad of footsteps below her, signalling that there was some sort of event. Probably just dinner.

And she was right.

Petra picked at her meat. She wanted to be a vegetarian, as she cared too much for nature. But Corporal Levi wouldn't allow it. He claims that she needs meat for protein. Something about muscle development. It was probably something else but she couldn't care less. So Petra decided to eat her carrots instead.

As she chewed, she couldn't help but notice that her fingers were subconsciously tapping away at the table. She tried to stop them, but she was much to intrigued to bother. They started making the shape of the three notes on the keys. She wanted to call them chores, but she knew that wasn't right.

_What is it?_

They then started to move up and down the table. Her left hand was getting her some looks and before she knew it, Corporal Levi spoke up.

"Are you okay Petra?" She looked up from her dancing fingers, to be met by the confused faces of Erwin, Hanji, Levi and everyone else in the room. She swallowed her mouthful and uttered the words in a quiet voice:

"Chords, chords. That's it!"

Her eyes became wider as she eventually realized that everyone was listening to her. She must look like a wacko from everyone else's perspective.

"What are you talking about Petra?" Commander Erwin asked, his blonde eyebrows knitted together in pure confusion.

"O-oh, um… uh, s-sorry! E-xcuse me p-please!" She stuttered, completely panicking in front of everyone. She got up and ran out of the room at full speed. Her cheeks were flushed by the time she reached the piano room.

"How embarrassing." Petra muttered as she picked up the book she had left on her stool.

She spent the next hour flicking through the pages, reading every single detail and then trying it out on the piano.

It was the same routine. Read, re-read, try.

And believe it or not, it worked.

After a further two hours, her fingers were becoming numb. But, in the space of three hours, she could now play a song with both of her hands. As well as read music.

Petra decided that it would be easier to focus on one song. So the went through the pile of paper, which turned out to be composed of music sheets, until she found the correct song. And when she did, she didn't even need to go through the rest.

It consisted of eight bars, repeated 28 times. It was supposed to have a violin and a cello, but the creator of this particular composition edited it so that the noted that they were supposed to play were interpreted into the pianos part of the song.

The name of the song, you ask?

Canon, by Johann Pachelbel.

So there Petra sat, her fingers hitting the keys in time.

After a while of practicing, she wanted to go through the song the whole way through. She flexed her aching hands, relaxed her shoulders and took a few deep breaths.

And then she started to play.

But when she hit the last chord, she nearly had a heart-attack.

"That was beautiful, Petra."

It was Levi. Corporal Levi.

A hand clamped over Petra's mouth as she let out a sharp gasp. How did he find her up here? She shut the- oh. She totally forgot to shut the door to the staircase. She mentally stabbed herself for being so stupid.

"H-heichou, I-I'm so sorry! I-"Petra's apologies were cut off by Levi placing a hand on her shoulder. She went as stiff as a rock.

"Petra, even I didn't know about this place. Let alone that there was a piano in here. Don't worry though, I won't sell it. On one condition." Levi said in a low voice. Petra nodded at him, signalling him to continue.

"I want you to perform that song in front of everyone tonight."

His request caught her off guard. She just learnt it! She couldn't possibly perform it yet!

"U-um, a-are you sure?" Petra asked quietly. Levi nodded.

"You are an excellent pianist. I can assure you, they won't even know if you mess up." Petra gulped.

So an hour later, Petra was sat at her stool in front of the piano which had been moved into the dining room. Scouts had gathered on the tables, putting their boots on the seat. Levi was not impressed, but decided to let this one slip for Petra's sake.

Several gasps could be heard when Petra started to play. Everyone watched in utter awe as her fingers literally flew across the key, hitting various notes. Her heart was beating a thousand miles an hour.

When Petra finished, a roar of cheers and whoops filled the entire castle. Even Levi was clapping. That was certainly a first.

Petra smiled sheepishly as Hanji stood her on top of a table, telling her to take a bow. She could've sword that Gunther had tears in his eyes.

And that is the story of how Petra Ral of the Special Operations Squad came to be the most talented pianist in all of humanity's history from that day forward.

**Finished! *Takes a bow* I just got a new computer so there will be more of this type of thing now. Tell me if you want a chaptered story, oneshots or both! I don't mind! Anyway, have a good day!**

**~Gubbles12 ^-^**


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